HalfLife: String theory
by Arko-del-oeste
Summary: Alexander Aschell von Klaus.... Philip James Douglas... You are... amazing men, very much of interest, I value you're ressssourcefullness, it seems that you have caught my interest? I hope this is of no consequence to your survival but just remember that
1. Chapter 1, Distibution

Distribution

"Welcome to the Black Mesa research facility, this Tram is provided for the use by all Black Mesa personnel, the outside temperature is 69 Degrees Fahrenheit, with an estimated high of 105, the black mesa research facility is kept at a constant temperature of 68 degrees, this Tram is inbound from Level 4 dormitories to the advanced vehicle testing area and main station, level 3, .

This tram is heading for a Middle-security area, if you have not secured a Middle-Security pass please go and procure on at the Central Hub on Level3."

A Tram was traveling through a thin concrete tunnel with the sides of the tram nearly scraping the tunnels walls, above were large fluorescent lights which beamed down along the tram and below the rail that was holding up the tram, inside were two men in lab coats, one was an old man with thinning hair and a thin look about him altogether the other a young man with a more heavily-built body and a loving smile, they had sat down in the trams seats and were discussing,

The younger man was talking "I tell you Philip, you have got it all wrong, I believe that the engine will work."

"I do not believe you Alexander, the power distribution system is much too strong, once you turn on that engine it will burn itself out, there are too many valves, the system is so hell bent on being accurate and distributing power that it will just burn out the valves, they can hardly turn on and off many times, but you're saying that this will be able to take on a huge change in requirements in a short time, other than the power increase required to do a sudden movement then you have o switch around what sections are getting power, the valves will not take the stress." Philip stood up and looked out the front of the tram, he lay his shoulders on the ledge and put his head in his hands,

"You talk too much of your wishful thinking Alexander, you have more enthusiasm than Isaac, and this is not what you need, if you are going to succeed Alex you will need to show less that this will definitely work, you always place too much of your confidence in things, this might not work and if it doesn't you could lose your job." Alex looked at Philip who was deeply concerned for him, he was like a second father to Alex who was always looking out for him.

"Philip, I have advanced upon your on research, it may or it may not, but I put my full confidence behind it."

The tram stopped at a Huge mechanical gate, the gate opened, revealing a large expansive station with hundreds of personnel waiting at the station, there were many tram rails and TV Timetables with signs all pointing to the adjacent labs just outside the station, above a rail reached out and connected with the end of the previous rail, there was a crackle from the rails as they joined and the tram continued forward, the above a huge plasma screen flashed the face of an ageing man who began to speak "Hello and good morning Black Mesa, today there is an Important test going on in Anomalous Materials, so please be aware of power surges also I would like to congratulate Alexander Klaus for his win at the HEV Decathlon quarter-finals, you are a credit to your department.

The Tram lowered onto another floor and stopped, Alexander and Philip go out and preceded to some stairs, above they saw another tram with a grey-suited man go past looking at the pair, "Who is he?"

"I have no Idea, let's go." Alex and Philip continued up the stairs and into an office, they continued to the end of the office and to a Airlock. A security Guard typed into a keypad and the door opened, leading to a long walkway.

Alex and Philip continued down the walkway into an open testing area where above there was an observation area with a bunch of scientists, walled off by large panes and below it two orange suits with a lambda symbol on the chest plate. "Alexander! Philip!" The same ageing man appeared out of the crowd of scientists, he was wearing his lab coat. "It is good to see you, I believe you wish to show us your Hover-engine." Out of the back of the Observation Area a gaunt man in a grey suit appeared.


	2. Chapter 2, Ladies and Gentlemen

"Ladies and gentlemen."…

"Alex!" Philip was staring at him through a crack in a pile of rubble, his hand was reaching through the crack. "Phil!" Alex got up, he had been knocked out by the blast, "I didn't want to leave you Alex, I have been trying to wake you for a while now, we need to get out, I'm going to go and get out of here, we'll meet up in the offices, I'll see you around." Philip and Alex shaked hands through the hole and then Philip ran off. Alex quickly saw that behind him the wall had fallen down, he climbed through and saw a wrench on the floor, he picked it up and looked at it for a minute, then, out of nowhere a weird ball of beige flesh appeared, it walked p to Alex with its spindly legs, it resembled a dog sniffing the floor, it then jumped up at Alex who in fear grabbed it with the wrench and crushed it between the working edge and the adjustable edge, he then dropped it on the floor and saw yellow ooze billow forth, he saw that its skin had a weird texture, like leather, but oily, he walked ahead and saw a staircase, he walked towards it, but then a huge metal girder swung out and the staircase collapsed, leaving pile of rubble, behind it Philip could see an opening, a burrow of some sort, he crawled into it, it was a soft earth, he continued to crawl through and reached the end, he saw that he was in a plant bed, and crawled out, he was in the underground park, he crawled out and looked around, above the guardrails had fallen and made a sort of scaffolding which kept up the roof, around he could see no one, only the plants and the red rock of the base, he began to look for an exit, above there were many doors but only one he could see on the ground floor, and it was at the opposite side of the room, he hoped that he would not be led too far off course, the room was extremely large and high, if he was going to go through the door he might end up at section three, which would not be good, he would have to go on the rail system, and he would not think that that would be working well after that explosion. "Oh great." He began to walk across the room, but then he heard something. A creaking sound, he continued, when he had met the halfway point a gigantic fissure opened up, the guardrails buckled, broke and fell, interlacing with each other so that the walls stayed up, then some steel guide ropes broke and a hallway crashed out of the ceiling, the rubble bounced off the walls and the hallway landed with an almighty crash on the floor. Inside the hallway he saw an aging man fall out, he was face down, but when Alex turned him over, he couldn't believe his eyes. "PHILIP!" Alex looked at him, "Alex, well, that was lucky, for you, I don't think that you would like to go though that." Alex pulled Philip up on his feet and Philip dusted himself down. "let us make for an exit." "Over there." Alex pointed to the door. "That might lead to section th-." "I know, but it's our only exit." Alex and Philip continued to the door, the corridor began to rupture so Alex and Philip ran to the door. They opened and closed it promptly and found themselves in an office. "Phew, not section three, it's only lifts, let's get as far up as we can." Alex walked to the lifts slowly and he clicked the lift button. They waited for a while and then slowly the doors opened, then as the doors stopped a large insectoid came behind then, it had with it a weird long fleshy device that pulsed electricity. It had one bulbous eye and gill like muscular sheaths sticking out, it called out something and at that moment another smaller creature with eight eyes, hooves and green skin shot a huge bolt of electricity at it, killing it. Alex and Philip got inside the lift and Philip furiously pummelled the close doors button. "they were safe, outside the creature pounded on the doors but to no avail, Alex could hear electric blasts being fired but nothing worked, Alex pushed the buttons but nothing worked. The lift was stuck. At least they were behind closed titanium doors. "I think we have to crawl out of the lift and climb up the maintenance ladders on the outside." Philip announced. Alex nodded and opened to escape hatch, he got on top of the lift and lifted Philip out of the compartment with him, above there was a huge blast of fresh air as fans from above spun, the concrete lined walls shone in the light and the width of the room could take a mans breath away, there were twelve lifts six back to back, the spaces between each lift was large and as Philip looked around, he spotted a ladder, grabbed it and spotted a crowbar, he picked it up as he knew he would need it for later. "Alex! I think we should go as far up as we can, I can see an open doorway from here! Near the top." Alex got on the ladder and began climbing; Philip who had already started climbing could see a vague figure climbing down the lifts ropes. "Hello!"

The vague figure turned around and looked at Philip and shouted. "Hello! My old friend." The man turned out to be Philip! "WHAT IN THE NAME OF-." "Beelzebub? Well, I am your time twin, of exactly." The second Philip looked at his watch. "6 Hours, 21 minutes and 54 seconds in the future. I cannot tell you more information Philip, or me or whatever, but anyway, I am going down, you will do best not to follow me." "Understood." said Alex. "I hope that I can forgive myself for saying this but what happened?" "I will tell you some things, A resonance cascade, You can check with the scientist up at the door that you will enter, Dr. Kleiner. But anyway, Philip, We are experiencing a resonance cascade, there was a discrepancy in the power levels when the Anomalous materials team tested their subject, a huge shockwave travelled the length and Breadth of the base and you should know the rest." "A resonance cascade? As in string theory?" "Yes, as far as I can tell the malfunction stopped the strings of the particles in the beam emitters resonating, time froze and space twisted." "It froze like a television." "as predicted if it ever happened." Philip continued climbing and Philip2 spoke "Farewell, and Alex." "Yes?" "You are a brave man." "erm.. thankyou?" Philip2 continued to descend and Philip and Alex continued upwards until they stumbled over onto the maintenance walkway along the side, Philip and Alex jumped through the open door and there was Dr. Kleiner, looking at Philip. "Dear god! Philip! You found someone! Come here! I must tell you of what happened now! I cannot delay you of this information any longer!"

"Megas Alexandros!" A black man turned around and met eyes with Alex. "Dr. Vance, and well, who is this?" A young girl looked at Alex, "This, is Alyx."…


	3. Chapter 3, Deliverance

Deliverance

"Alex, Philip, I hope that you are ready for what I am going to tell you, During today when we were testing our newest sample a discrepancy in the power levels caused the whole system to freeze when Gordon Freeman put the test example into the beam, I hope that he is O.K. Poor man, we sent him to get help but he seems to have been caught in the way by most of the strange aliens of the attack. We have been co-ordinating events from this terminal, so far we've been successful in keeping the aliens away but I fear that a military cleanup is underway, they don't want any word of this spreading out. We were thinking of getting to the transport hub and moving from there, but were not sure if it'll work, we need somebody to make sure that power is online and that we can find a safe route from the tunnel…" "We'll go, I will go to the electrics and Philip to the Hub, we'll get another train, from the hub Once I've got back to Philip." "Are you sure?" "Yes, once it's online you go, we can't take any risks." Alex looked very broad and strong, he seemed to grow in size during the conversation, next to him Eli seemed unsure, he then stepped in. "I will not allow it!" said Eli, You cannot just go down there and strand yourself, we know our Tram works, it's just out there, all the systems work but how do you know that any of them work at the depot?" "We will just call one, there's a recall button, we can check that nobody is on it, we can just bring it there." "Very well." Replied Eli, "I just hope that you can get one, I have this for you, I hope that these are of better use to you than I." Eli Handed Alex and Philip a pistol each, "I got them from two security guards while fending off a few of these weird aliens, they both were mauled but I managed to kill the crab-like things, I'd look out for any more, We haven't seen any yet but that doesn't mean there'll be none." Alex looked on the sign and saw that they were going right, back in the direction of the main hub is from whence they came." Above Alex looked at the screen and saw that in the hub nothing was stirring, then out of Nowhere a gaunt grey-suited man walked in front of the screen and held up a piece of paper, the words read in a sort of Jumpy English, Go to the Hub, electricity on, go quickly, a friend… and then the man left the screen. "Hey, how can you tell the electrics are on?" "We check the gauge in the left maintenance panel on the tram, why?" "Can I just check it?" Asked Alex. "Fair enough. The tram's that way." Eli pointed left to a small doorway, when Alex stepped outside he saw that the walls were not plated with concrete but with brushed steel, the sheen would have overcome a man but Alex walked to the tram which was darker than the tunnel, an octagonal shaped sheening tunnel which stretched far along and to which Alex could find no end. Alex walked to the tram and took off the panel and saw a small green light, next to it he saw the word power. "HEY THE POWERS ON!" He jumped up and the rest raced in to take a look. "Great Scott!" Kleiner Embraced, "It is!" Dr. Vance and Kleiner were shocked and in joy. "We can leave!" "Get in!" "No somebody must make sure that you have a clear route." Alex Grimly added, I will go to the Hub and find you a route." He bent down to the panel and took a walkie-talkie out. "I will program the route from the hub." He added. "Don't try and stop me Philip I will go, you protect them for the ride." "Then I will go with you." "Fair enough" "Go!" The others got in the tram and then Alex said one last thing to Alyx, "I am sorry that I have not had more time to know you, be safe." He then walked off while the rest waited in the Tram. "It will no take long for you to get to the hub, if you are lucky." Kleiner added, good luck!"

Alex with Philip then walked out again and gave a sharp left, they walked to a door some way down a large hallway with many abandoned desks adorning the left side and opened it, then they Jumped back with a mix of fear and surprise and saw in front of themselves the gaunt grey man. "Alexander aschell von Klaus… Philip James Douglas…. You are… amazing men, very much of interest, I value your ressssourcefullness, it seems that you have caught my interest? I hope that this is of no consequence to your survival but just remember that ahead is much danger, you will both go through thick and thin as you try and escape, Eli and Isaac are safe for the time being and will survive this catastrophe although I cannot say the same for Eli's leg which with meet some trouble a later date, but now you will see more than most men will during this time of need and lossss." He walked out of the smaller hallway and brushed himself, he then talked again. "Prepare to fight, to fight for your lives, and go along, I will see you up ahead." He walked away and down the corridor Philip and Alex turned around down the hallway from whence he came but they saw nothing. "Where is he?" "I have no idea?" They then walked down the corridor and closed the door. Up above there was clunking in the air vents, It was the Grey-suited man crawling through them. "Damn them, they have no idea what I have to go through to get to them all, now then, where is Barney Calhoun?" He drudged along in the vents with no-one aware of his Gymnastic skills. "Ouch! Damn Vents, have these people never heard of large vent shafts?"

Philip and Alex continued down the hallway, it was long and quite wide, the bases computer voice was calling out. "Warning, malfunction, fires in upper levels, warning, fire shield eng-eng-engaged, warning, upper levels on fire, warning upper levels on fire…" as the voice continued on a huge flaming animal jumped out of a side vent, it was a large animal writhing in scars and charred, it crashed through a window on the other side and dropped a hundred feet before landing on a large pile of rubble. "It seems we are now above the garden area. Alex ran along past the thick concrete walled section of the corridor and saw many windows along the side, below he saw the creature on the floor, then he saw a large animal crawl down the walls, It seemed to be a long, green tentacle with a black blade fixed on the end. It reached out, inspected the corpse and turned it over a few times, rubbing itself against the dead creature, as Philip walked towards the broken window where Alex was, the Tentacle tapped the ground in the rhythm of Philips footsteps, as Philip Reached Alex the creature flew up about a hundred feet, its body continued to reach across, an unending long, greenish band that was rippling as it swayed from side to side getting its bearing, it had two dimly lit yellow eyes and long veins under the skin bulge, it had a proboscis and a long metallic-coloured trunk, made of two pieces, while the smaller under proboscis seemed to be mouth-like. The creature slammed full force into the corridor, missed Philip and Alex and slammed into a doorway, its face crinkled the weak wooden doors but then it retracted, screaming in pain, it leapt away from the corridor, out into the gigantic garden area again, its face was badly scorched and it slammed into the corridor three times, each time gouging the Corridor out, it then got caught on a girder from the rubble below, with the girder threaded through a gap in the blade-edge of the creatures trunk and it lay on the floor, heavily-breathing. Philip and Alex ran the rest of the length of the corridor and opened the door, they had come into a long chamber with many walkways and lifts, it was quite dull, mostly a bleak grey, but the stark difference of the metal bands across the sides of the room took away that feeling, above a huge metallic upper level reached to a large console and just above voices could be heard.

"We need more time." "I can't hold off aliens with my tie Lewisham, what shall we do?" The voices continued to mutter "I have no Idea Dr. Phlox but we must go, Immediately!" "No! We must hope that somebody is down there and they can help us." The two men walked across the railings and spoke. "Look man! There is nobody to help us! If there is anyone down there armed I'll eat my laces." The men peered below and were shocked to see Philip and Alex. "My god, Are you armed!" Philip and Alex looked at each other and help up their guns, "My word! Quickly get up here, we need you help!"


	4. Deliverance Pt 2

Deliverance Pt2

Philip and Alex got up to the top of the walkway and saw a large control panel, outside through the glass they could see a huge open structure, a great multi-levelled transport structure, the tram rails criss-crossed and brushed-steel stations with the times and the destinations of the trams still flashing out, then they saw a man. A marine who was having some alien trouble, he shot down the aliens who seemed to be teleporting from tram to tram, he was then trapped when a huge alien, a great pale-four legged animal then jumped on the tram and made it fall off, the bottom of the room seemed to move but then as Philip took a closer look he saw loads of people, thousands who had got to the main hub, then another sight appeared, a gaunt man appeared going across in a tram and looked over the side. "15 killed." He shouted then the tram left. They began to become panicked. They began to go up the expansive stairways upwards where a load of Trams began arriving.

"I am Philip and this is Alex, we need to escape, I hope we can be of use?"

"I am Dr. Phlox, we need to get these refugees to the surface but this area is about to be flooded with a large group of unidentified aliens." Philip looked at the camera screens and saw six-eyed aliens running down a hallway, then slowly Each camera was taken out, a low rumble eminated and a giant blue alien burst through the doors, it tried to make its way across the area behind the Hubs cockpit but it failed in getting past two lifts, it then horrifically melted the lifts with its claws that spouted flame.

The alien continued to wander towards the console. It stopped and then stamped on the floor. A lick of blue lightning ran across the floor and blew up another lift.

"GET GOING PHLOX!" Shouted Lewisham. Quickly Phlox punched in a group of commands and the Trams outside began to appear. Each was filled and the trams moved out of the hub to move the other trams in and get another bucket load of scientists in. Philip, Phlox, Lewisham and Alex rushed through a door and at the nick of time, a Tram appeared just outside. They rushed in and the alien ran, but it missed the tram as it left and flew, missing all of the trams and making a huge splat on the ground as its insides were crushed and blew open into a soft light blue mush.

The Trams headed down one hallway but almost immediately aliens appeared and began shooting green lightning bolts, to no avail. Then gunshots could be heard as pistol fire quickly killed the aliens. The security guards on the trams risked being shot by the bolts to kill the aliens, then an even more dangerous creature appeared on the trams. A giant armoured alien began to tear off one of the roofs and began firing what seemed to be bees into the scientists. They were torn apart. Their broken bodies falling off the tram and into the floor. A group of security guards walked up to the alien but then time slowed down except for Philip and Alex who looked each other, the world greyed and then the grey-man seemed to walk out of a white door which appeared out of nowhere. "Remember me? Take this." Philip was handed a Six-shooter and Alex a shotgun. The universe began to slowly return to normal speed and then a strange six-eyed alien jumped onto their tram.

Lewisham hit the monster and then held it over the side, "Who are you?" He rattled it but it did not answer. "I'll deal with him." Philip shot the alien in the neck and threw it out. All around there were refugees being taken but by the end the alien had all been killed or driven off.

Finally they arrived at what seemed to be a tube station, finally they had found a way out, finally they were free but just then as they clambered at the station they found out that they had reached the next tram system, to the secret technologies department. Few dared to go in there knowing what might happen.

"We cannot go on; this area is restricted to even me in places" Said Lewisham.

"Then we must try and go through, surely they'll let us through at this time of need?"

Alexander looked up and saw a small control room, in it stood a security guard and a scientist; the scientist began to talk on a microphone. "Get in Quickly!" He barked. "THERE IS NO TIME!"

The doors in front opened and the trains lights turned on, a dark dimly lighted tunnel of tracks lay ahead of them with another small station where another group of scientists were waiting.

"Get in and I shall initiate the trains."

Scientists flocked in until they had all got into the trains; each had glass canopies with a few metal bars and chain link to defend themselves against whatever they were supposed to be defended against. Security posted themselves at doors and windows; emergency weaponry was taken from safes at the front and given to suitable wielders. Alex and Philip now had a pistol, shotgun and sub-machine gun each. But Philip had a crowbar too, what tactical advantage it would provide he would not know but anything helps from anything that helps.


End file.
